


We'll turn out alright

by VelourFanClub (toomanysorrows)



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Getting Together, Growing Up, Hurt/Comfort, I tagged felicia bc shes mentioned a fair bit, Suicide Attempt, felicia/corrin/rhajat is mentioned but not like super prominent, idk what to tag tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-08 02:21:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17972627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toomanysorrows/pseuds/VelourFanClub
Summary: The story of how Flora and Lilith ended up happy together, even after all the trouble they went through.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah so this is basically just. Long kinda rambly flora/lilith story. Though tbh it's very Flora centric (bc intsys barely gave lilith a character *glares at them*)

In hindsight, it really wasn’t strange that Flora would grow close to Lilith in the Northern Fortress. There were very little other options for socializing after all. Gunther was out right off the bat of course, since he was both a Nohrian knight and about three times her age. She could respect Jakob’s competency as a butler but he was also… she hesitated to say a bootlicker but quite frankly, he was. Always going on about lady Corrin to the exclusion of everything else, it irritated Flora to no end. 

Lady Corrin herself was right out too of course. She was kind enough, kinder than Flora had expected from a Nohrian royal, and Flora could feel sympathy for her imprisonment, but that didn’t change the facts: she was royalty of the nation that had conquered Flora’s tribe and on top of that she was her mistress. Spending time outside of what was strictly necessary with someone like that was just not done, especially for a future chieftain. That left Felicia. Of course, Flora loved Felicia, and they did often spend their breaks together. But sometimes her clumsiness and the memories of the favouritism of their father got too much for Flora, and she just couldn’t bear to be around Felicia for a while. So when Lilith showed up to the castle, she was a welcome arrival.

When she joined the staff Lilith clearly had very little experience with domestic service, but Flora supposed that when you had to find staff for a large fortress in the middle of nowhere you couldn’t be choosy about who you hired. As a result, Gunther had assigned Flora to teach her how to do her tasks. With two maids and a butler Corrin had quite enough personal servants, so Lilith’s job had more to do with maintaining the castle. But with how understaffed the castle was, Flora had had to do tasks relating to that enough that she knew perfectly what to teach Lilith. To her relief, while Lilith seemed to have a strange lack of knowledge about some regular things, she was a fast learner, and it wasn’t long before she didn’t need Flora’s help anymore, although on certain tasks they still ended up working together. 

Flora saw her at other times too of course, at dinner or in the servant’s quarters for example. She found she got along quite well with Lilith. She was a good person to be around if you wanted to be somewhere quiet, but not alone. The girl had a very calming presence, which Flora could very much appreciate. And while she was often quiet, talking with her was still enjoyable. She seemed to care for Corrin a great deal (which was rather strange, considering Corrin was something of a secret to most of the populace) but in a much more subtle way than Jakob. And while Flora assumed Lilith was Nohrian (although she had a very queer accent, and that strange gem on her forehead that everyone thought was just a cultural thing), she never felt Nohrian.

Whereas before Flora had spent her free time either being with Felicia or being alone, she now started spending time with Lilith often. Since Corrin had insisted that the library of the fortress (which she had been adding to zealously for lack of anything better to do) would be useable for the servants too, they often sat and read together there. They had quite different tastes in books admittedly. Lilith liked stories about adventures whereas Flora preferred more romantic stories. Despite the different tastes however, chatting about them was still fun, and sometimes they found books that satisfied both of their tastes (prime example being Ribald tales of the fate war, although of course they didn’t read that until years after their meeting).

Flora even opened up to Lilith more than she had ever done to her sister, talking about her insecurities, her anxieties, everything. And Lilith always listened quietly. She wasn’t the greatest with words, but it was clear she cared and was willing to listen, and that was more than enough for Flora.

\------ 

The Northern Fortress, with its ugly stone walls, barren landscape and harsh weather hardly looked like a place were romance could flourish. But as they all grow older, somehow, it did. It started with Corrin and Felicia. They started blushing around each other, Felicia became more clumsy around her and Corrin started to stammer, and after one night Felicia came back to the servants’ quarters much later than usual with a bright smile on her face. It wasn’t exactly hard for Flora to figure out what had happened. She wasn’t sure how to feel. The part of her that was her father’s successor was angry at the idea of her own sister dating a Nohrian royal. On the other hand, the part of her that was just a sister saw that Felicia was happy, and knew that Corrin wasn’t a bad woman. So she settled for not paying attention to it at all. She liked to think that if anything bad happened Felicia would come to her to talk, so there wasn’t much point in worrying.

However she couldn't deny that she was... jealous. Felicia seemed genuinely happy now, which was an emotion Flora had felt very little since they had arrived here. And all her romance literature didn’t help either…

This did mean however that Felicia and Corrin spent a lot more time together than before, leaving Flora with a lot more alone time. Naturally, she started spending even more time with Lilith. And maybe it was all the time spent together, maybe it was that jealousy, maybe it was both, but she started… noticing things about Lilith. For example, her hair was very soft, and when she let it out of her braid, while it was messy, it looked really pretty and fluffy. And her amber eyes were very beautiful, especially when she was focused on something. And she had a really cute smile.

So next Winter’s Feast, Flora kissed Lilith. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision: they’d been hanging up some of the decorations Corrin wanted, and had just hung up a mistletoe. Flora got the idea and acted upon it before she could back out. Luckily Lilith kissed back. It wasn’t like in the books, there were no fireworks or sparks of static or anything of the sort. But it felt nice and warm and right, so Flora decided she didn’t need fireworks. 

Their relationship didn’t change much after that. They still worked together on polishing the silver, they still sat together in the library, they still unloaded the supplies from the carts that rumbled to the gates. But now they smiled when their hands touched when washing, and they curled up together on the same chair in the library, and sometimes one of them didn’t sleep in their own bed. It wasn’t the kind of heated passionate love like in the books, but it was good enough for Flora. She was happy.

\----- 

When it was announced that Corrin would be leaving the Northern Fortress to visit castle Windmire and prove herself to her father, Flora was hopeful. Partly she was happy that Corrin could finally leave,   
but moreover, the change lit the hope that maybe she and Felicia would be able to go home soon too. After all, they’d been serving loyally for years now. Surely if Corrin managed to impress the king, he’d be satisfied both with her and with the care they’d all taken of her in the palace. He’d think her and Felicia had become proper Nohrian subjects, and let them go. Or maybe he’d still want to keep one of them on hand as leverage, just in case, but she was confident at least one of them would return. Although she wasn’t sure whether she was hoping it was her or Felicia who would get to go home. 

Then to put it mildly, it all went to shit. 

First the rumours came in about Corrin betraying Nohr to side with Hoshido. Then Lilith mysteriously disappeared with only a note stating that she’d gone after Corrin. Then she and Felicia were sent to work at one of Garon’s villas, which was much more demanding work than working at the Northern Fortress had ever been. Then Felicia left too with some hasty words about going to help lady Corrin, and   
Flora was left alone. 

There were a lot of unseasonal blizzards in Nohr that year. 

\----- 

Accepting Garon’s offer had been a hard decision. Of course, it would mean betraying Corrin, but that wasn’t too bad. Corrin had been kind but Flora had never considered her a close friend, much less her liege, like Jakob or Felicia did. It had always been an arrangement made from threats, not loyalty. But it did mean betraying Felicia in a sense and putting her in danger. Flora thought that, if necessary, she could tell people not to attack Felicia, and if they won she could just let Felicia slip away. 

Garon had asked her to kill Felicia too but if she killed Corrin, he probably wouldn’t care. Felicia was just another maid to him after all. Maybe she could even claim to have killed Felicia, using some Hoshidan corpse as a ruse. Garon had never seen her after all. But she knew Felicia, she was stubborn. If she knew they had Corrin she’d try to free her. She’d need to be captured and kept under lock and key until Corrin had been brought before king Garon. Felicia would hate her for it, definitely, but at least she wouldn’t have been harmed…

The bigger issue was how it would affect the ice tribe. The words of the royal agents had been clear: if she refused to play along the entire tribe would be destroyed. She was the heir to the tribe, it was impossible for her to let that happen. And if she agreed to the plan and they won… Garon was cruel and capricious, but he wasn’t dumb. He knew a good tool if he saw one. And maybe if they proved to be a good tool, the ice tribe might be able to secure a better treaty with Nohr, in return for loyalty and help. They would inevitably still be under Nohrian control, but maybe in a better position, and regardless they would survive. 

News got around among the domestic staff just like it did everywhere else. She knew Cheve was in revolt supported by the Hoshidans. She could theoretically agree to the plan, only to change sides and make her tribe help the Hoshidans, in the hopes that that would secure future independence. But that was risky. Nohr was strong, there was a good chance they could still wipe away the Hoshidan force and mop up the rebellions. And she could be certain the Ice Tribe would in fact be destroyed then, Garon was not known for mercy to rebels. Besides, she’d heard of how Hoshido treated the small countries around it, they weren’t any better than Nohr. They could easily just turn around after the war and just do the same thing Nohr had done to the Ice Tribe and Cheve.

Agreeing to the plan was the best route for the survival of the tribe.

That left the question of whether she could do it. She was an exemplary maid, but not much more than that. She had never been good at combat, and her experience at leadership was limited to occasionally telling Felicia which side of the room to scrub. She was not at all the kind of person to lead an army. 

But ultimately she didn’t have a choice, she had to accept for the tribe. But really, when had she ever had a choice in the first place?


	2. Chapter 2

She had “borrowed” the little vial of alchemical fire from the apothecary in castle Macarath, just in case. It was only common sense really. If she failed the tribe she would have nothing left. No people to fight for, no friends, only whatever fate the Hoshidans or king Garon would have in mind for her. No use in sticking around for such things. It was always better to wipe a stain away immediately instead of letting it sit for a while. 

When she stood in the village, the bodies of Ice Tribe soldiers around her and Corrin and Felicia in front of her, she was glad for her earlier decision. As she talked with them, she almost felt tempted not to do it, to agree to go with them and try to stop king Garon. Then her eye lingered on one of the bodies lying around, and she cracked the vial. 

The flames were painful, spreading across her clothes. She had to fight to not use her ice powers to extinguish them. She could hear the commotion around her, heard Felicia sobbing. She grimaced in the pain. It hadn’t been the first time she’d made Felicia cry. At least that wouldn’t happen anymore 

It was all for the best really. She’d failed her tribe. She’d hurt her sister. She betrayed her friends. The ice tribe would be fine. Corrin had proven she was a strong general, she would no doubt succeed in killing Garon. The tribe still had Felicia. She probably would be a better chieftain than Flora could have been. These were uncertain times, and Felicia was a much better fighter than Flora. And she was friends with the Hoshidans. And she had always been nicer to people. She’d always been better really.

Then the world went dark.

\-----

According to ice tribe religion, when someone died, they joined the aurora in dancing across the night sky. When she was little Flora had always wondered what it would look like to do that. Would there be a lot of light? Would you still be able to see things down below or would everything be too bright for that? Did you still have your body or were you just a beam of light?

Whatever it was like, Flora was fairly certain beds weren’t supposed to be involved. 

She tried to sit up, groaning in pain as she slumped down again. Her whole body felt incredibly sore, like she’d just woken up after hauling giant stones for a day and then going to sleep. She opened her eyes, looking around the room. It was quite simple, stone walls with some other beds here and there. In one a ways away a lady with green hair was sleeping (and snoring quite a bit). 

She tried to figure out where she was. It couldn’t be a Nohrian building. After her failure the Nohrians would have left her body for the crows, not put her somewhere inside. It certainly didn’t look like ice tribe architecture or furniture. It couldn’t be the Hoshidan camp either, they had no permanent base of operations, if they’d saved her she’d be lying in a tent. 

Despite the soreness, she felt a lot better than she would expect someone who had burned to death to feel. She lifted the hand with which she’d cracked the vial up to her face. There were no wounds at all. There was discoloured scar tissue, roughly in the shape you’d expect of severe burns, but no outright wounds. Someone had clearly healed her. 

Before she could think of anything more a soft voice sounded from out of the door.

“Oh, you’re awake!”

\-----

The next days had been… confusing to say the least. After she and Felicia had finished up a very long and very tearful hug, she was filled in on everything that had happened. Apparently a dark sorcerer from the wind tribe (who Felicia was apparently dating now? Along with Corrin?) had been travelling with the army, and she’d been able to put out the alchemical fire, after which healers had been called and Flora had survived, with only slight healing scars. 

Felicia and Corrin were not angry at her. Or well, they were very angry at her for trying to kill herself, but they made it clear very early on they forgave her for the whole “trying to kill Corrin” thing. It probably had the opposite effect of what they’d hoped, as it only made Flora feel even more guilty for having tried to kill someone like her. Maybe they knew, as the subject was never really brought up when they visited her in the infirmary. 

Instead they told her all about what had happened since Corrin had left, about how the castle worked and other similar things. That was also how Flora learned that Lilith was there too. During the whole mess Flora had done her best not to think about what was going on with Lilith, already too occupied with other things to let even more worry cloud her judgment. But when she found out Lilith was in the castle, Flora very much wanted to see her and see if she had been alright. 

Both Corrin and Felicia were strangely quiet about her though, saying that Lilith couldn’t visit her yet. And Flora could certainly not leave bed to go look for her, as the Hoshidan Princess that was the main healer was quite insistent on her maintaining bedrest for a while longer. Flora had tried to sneak out around dinner time once but… let’s just say an angry princess Sakura wasn’t something anyone wanted to deal with. 

Eventually though, it was deemed she had recovered sufficiently to walk around again, and one of the first things she insisted upon was seeing Lilith. Corrin still seemed hesitant but agreed to bring her where her girlfriend was staying. 

Flora really had no idea why Lilith was living in a temple. She had never been a terribly religious person.

Her confusion only increased when she entered and she actually saw Lilith. 

Finding out your girlfriend is a dragon is… a rather shocking experience, but Flora dealt with it with her usual coolness. The only thing signifying her shock was the slight layer of rime forming on the immediate surroundings. 

She and Lilith talked things over, slowly, with Lilith telling her all about what she was, why she had come to the Northern Fortress and why she had gone after lady Corrin. It was all a lot to take in but… after all Flora had been told over the past days of recovery it didn’t seem that strange anymore. And it explained some things quite well, like Lilith’s (really pretty) slitted eyes, or her small collection of shiny things back in the Fortress (Flora had sometimes teasingly called her a magpie because of that back then, but she supposed the nickname was not quite as apt anymore). Ultimately, as far as Flora was concerned, this was still the same Lilith as ini the Northern Fortress, just more scaly. So when Lilith nervously broached the topic of their relationship, she just leant in to plant a kiss on her forehead. 

\---- 

Flora’s life in the castle soon settled into a routine. She helped out with all kinds of tasks around the camp: checking the stores, tidying up, preparing meals, that sort of thing. Really, it wasn’t all that different from her work back in the fortress. She also helped out with the healing after battles, applying first aid to wounds while the wounded were waiting for the healers to come. She had plenty of experience with that from bandaging up Felicia. The work was a lot more fulfilling than it had been back in the Northern Fortress though, as for once Flora was working because she wanted to instead of because she had to under threat of execution. 

When she had finished her tasks, she often spent time with Felicia. They had had a few very serious talks, talking bluntly about their feelings in regards to each other, and it felt good to get it all out and clear the air somewhat. After that when they did things together, it was just regular sisterly bonding: going shopping in a nearby town they passed, chatting over tea, that sort of thing. Flora noticed that she enjoyed it a lot more than she had in the past. Felicia also once took her along on a date with her two girlfriends, and while Flora very much felt like the fourth wheel, seeing them all fuss over each other brought a smile to her face. Felicia was in good hands.

Of course she spent a lot of her free time with Lilith too. Usually she waited with eating dinner until she could bring a plate over for Lilith and they could eat together. She also noticed that despite the healing, the places where the alchemical fire had hit still occasionally burned, and the waters in Lilith’s temple often helped soothe it. Lilith didn’t really have an exciting time in her temple, so aside from telling her about her day, Flora started borrowing books around the camp so they could read together, just like old times. They also talked a lot about the future and what they’d do when the war was over. Lilith wasn’t sure whether she would ever be able to return to human form again, which did hamper a lot of their plans, as she couldn’t very well move around in cities. Lilith speculated that Corrin could probably pull strings with the Hoshidan royals to give them a secluded home somewhere in Hoshido, but as far as Flora was concerned it didn’t matter where they went. The important thing was that they’d be there together. 

\------ 

Eventually, the war was over. The atmosphere in the camp was mixed: many celebrated, but the deaths of two of Corrin’s Nohrian siblings had certainly put a damper on things. There was a party in the castle, but she, her girlfriends and a fair number of the Hoshidan royal siblings were not in attendance. Flora wasn’t either. She was much too busy simultaneously scolding Lilith over jumping in front of the axe aimed at Corrin and fussing over her wounds. It was maybe a bit hypocritical, considering what she herself had tried to do less than a month earlier to, but Flora wasn’t keen on the possibility of Lilith being gone a second time. She was relieved it hadn’t been a fatal hit, but her girlfriend’s right arm would still be out of commission for the next weeks. 

That was another thing, Lilith now had arms again. They weren’t sure how it happened, though Lilith thought that maybe the astral dragon Moro had been happy with her readiness to sacrifice herself for Corrin, but Lilith had regained her human form. It was hard for Flora to stay mad with how giddy Lilith was about that fact. Eventually she gave in and let Lilith take her to the party outside. When a slow song came on, Flora made sure to hold Lilith close as they danced.

\----- 

Everything settled down surprisingly quickly after the war. Prince Leo became king of Nohr and prince Ryoma king of Hoshido, both signing a treaty of friendship which made provisions for food aid to Nohr. In return for the aid, Cheve and the ice tribe became fully independent and Nohr’s army was shrunk. Corrin was reinstated as part of the Nohrian royal family (albeit without having a claim to the throne) and served as official go-between between the two nations. 

Flora didn’t go back to the ice tribe. She doubted anyone was eager to see her back after the defeat by the Hoshidans that she had caused. She did not want to press her claim to the chieftainship anyway. She had decided leading a nation wasn’t the kind of life she wanted, so she passed it on to Felicia. People would like her more and, with her relationship with a royal of both Hoshido and Nohr, she would ensure a good future for the tribe much better than Flora ever could.

King Leo had offered to hire her to head the domestic servants back at castle windmire, but Flora had politely declined. She was in no mood to serve in a Nohrian castle ever again. But she was good at service, and she had talked it over with Lilith: a career in it would not be so bad. Lilith didn’t have much of an idea of what she wanted to do. All she knew was that she wanted the two of them to move somewhere near the sea or a lake.

Eventually the two decided to settle down in Nestra, where Flora opened up a school to train servants with some borrowed money, which soon became known for its quality. Lilith helped out for a while but after a while she discovered she had quite the talent for creating water colour paintings. Soon she had customers among all the wealthy visitors to the city, and the two made a very comfortable living.   
One day, as Flora woke up next to her girlfriend while the sun was filtering through the windows, she knew everything had turned out alright after all.


End file.
